Patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) have an increased risk of Major Adverse Cardiac Events (MACE), commonly stratified via the Agatston score. In this study, we investigated Coronary Artery Calcification (CAC) patterns in patients with DM, to understand its impact on cardiovascular health. By individually segmenting CACs from over 25,000 Computed Tomography Calcium Score (CTCS) images and integrating clinical data, we created a propensity-matched cohort to isolate the effect of DM on calcification patterns by controlling for confounding variables such as age, gender, BMI, and medication use. We hand-crafted a novel set of 67 calcium-omics imaging features capturing the distribution, shape, density, and more of individual CACs and aggregated CAC features per artery. Diabetic patients, compared to nondiabetic, exhibited significantly higher Agatston (p-value: ⪅0.0005) and larger volume scores (p-value: 0.0018). Interestingly, diabetic patients had fewer calcified arteries (p-value: ⪅0005) and lower density calcifications than nondiabetic patients. Although previous studies have reported that DM leads to higher Agatston scores, to our knowledge, no studies have reported that this is driven by high-volume, low-density calcifications present in only one to two arteries. These findings suggest a distinct phenotype indicative of the continuing development of new lesions in affected arteries, possibly contributing to the increased incidence of MACE. This exploration of diabetes-related CAC patterns enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in DM, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions and redefined cardiovascular risk models for this vulnerable population.
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